DA to retry man held 33 years without conviction

HOUSTON (AP) — Prosecutors say they're preparing to retry a Texas man who's been in prison for 33 years, even though the state's top appeals court confirmed he doesn't have a valid conviction.

Matagorda County District Attorney Steven Reis said Thursday he has directed investigators to gather evidence in the case of 57-year-old Jerry Hartfield.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, acting on a request from a federal appeals court, re-affirmed Wednesday that it threw out Hartfield's capital murder conviction in 1983. That was three years after Hartfield went to death row for the slaying of a Bay City bus station worker.

Hartfield's sentence was commuted to life by then-Gov. Mark White. But the court says its reversal meant there was no sentence for the governor to commute because Hartfield had no conviction.